About 50,000 people had their say on proposals to review the management of the snapper fishery between Cape Reinga and East Cape before submissions closed on Friday.
Of the submissions, 1500 were from individuals and LegaSea, which had led public opposition to review options which could see the daily catch limit for recreational fishers reduced from nine to three.
LegaSea said 3000 people attended public meetings about the fishery review - including about 1000 people at two meetings in Whangarei and one in Kaikohe - and more than 365,000 emails opposing any changes had been sent to MPs and officials in the past four weeks.
A Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) spokeswoman said LegaSea submission forms could be appended or altered "and we cannot provide a reliable number of Legasea submissions received at this stage".
However, analysis of submissions should be able to produce a more definitive estimate, she said.